The Ride Home
by AnotherSongAnotherMile
Summary: AU. Needing a ride home from a late night party, Katniss swallows her pride and calls on her former best friend, Peeta Mellark. Written for Prompts in Panem.


**The Ride Home**

**Summary: **Needing a ride home from a late night party, Katniss swallows her pride and calls on her former best friend, Peeta Mellark.

**Visual Prompt: **#7

**Rating: **M

Katniss stood at the end of the long drive which led up to the farmhouse behind her. Even from a quarter-mile away, she could hear the booming of music and the loud yelling of the party-goers. With a sigh, she adjusted the strap on her purse on her shoulder before looking either way down the road for his headlights.

She wasn't quite sure why she felt so antsy; she'd only called Peeta an hour ago, and unless he flew out of the door immediately upon hanging up with her and floored it all the way there, it was going to be awhile before he showed.

Katniss was surprised when she looked up to see a pair of headlights cutting through the darkness, a rusted old pickup coming towards her.

It was a hot and humid August night, and when Peeta pulled up next to her, his passenger-side window was already rolled down. She stepped up to the side of his truck uncertainly, remembering her last conversation with her childhood best friend—_a falling out. _It'd been weeks since they'd spoken civilly toward one another. The last thing she had wanted to do tonight was ask him for a ride home, but it wasn't as if she had any other options. Gale had joined the military upon graduating, Madge was already away at college, and Prim didn't even have her license yet.

Peeta leaned across the bench seat of his '87 Dodge Dakota, nodding toward her. "You okay?" he asked, concern evident in his voice.

She nodded.

An uncomfortable moment of silence passed before he finally asked her, "Then are you going to get in? Or did I drive all the way out here just to watch you stand there next to the road?"

Katniss finally pulled open the door of the vehicle, causing its old, rusted metal hinges to groan loudly. Once she'd seated herself on the cracked vinyl seat of the cab, she reached across and—with a great deal of effort—swung the door shut behind her.

She stared out the window as Peeta accelerated past the old farmhouse where Katniss' boyfriend—_ex-boyfriend_—Cato Murphy lived. He had probably moved on since an hour and a half ago when she'd told him things were over. Clove was probably still upstairs, sitting on his bed and waiting for his return.

She probably hadn't even bothered to redress herself.

Katniss' stomach churned at the thought.

"So..." Peeta began, breaking the awkward silence as he turned his truck out onto a long stretch of deserted highway. It was three in the morning, and his vehicle was probably the only one on the road for miles. "Are you going to tell me what happened tonight?"

Katniss frowned, folding her arms over her chest. "I don't think that's any of your business."

Peeta sent her a sideways glance, blowing out a large breath of air and fluttering his bangs in the process.

"You call me in the middle of the night, frantic and upset, telling me you need a ride home, and it's none of my business?" he asked her. "So now I'm just supposed to do you favors at your beck and call, even though..." He shook his head.

Katniss raised an eyebrow. "Even though what, Peeta?"

"Even though we're not even friends anymore," he mumbled, reaching to signal and turning onto another country road that would take them back to Panem.

"That's hardly my fault, Peeta," she told him drily.

He glanced at her before looking back towards the road. "You think I wanted it this way?" he argued with her. "I never meant to upset you, Katniss. I told you those things because I gave a shit about you, not because I wanted to tell you how to live your life."

"You think I'm not strong enough to take care of myself," she countered. "Well, you know what, Peeta? I don't always need you there protecting me."

Peeta sighed in frustration, bringing the palm of his hand down his face.

"And if you would have known about something that could potentially hurt me, you wouldn't have warned me?" he asked her. "Is that the kind of friendship we have after seven years?"

When she didn't answer him, he pulled the truck to the side of the road.

"What are you doing?" Katniss asked him as he put the truck into park and turned off the engine. "Peeta, I want to go home."

He shook his head. "We're not going anywhere until we settle this," he told her, his blue eyes slicing into hers. "I care too much about you to have it all end this way. God, Katniss, you're my _best friend. _And now what? We're just going to stop speaking to one another because of some stupid argument we had about your boyfriend-"

"He's not my boyfriend anymore!" she angrily interrupted him, causing him to flinch slightly at her sudden outburst. "You were right, Peeta... You were right about everything! You always are though, aren't you? Cato is a cheat and a liar and a jerk, just like you said he was," she admitted, surprising herself as she choked on her own sob. She groaned, embarrassed that she was crying over him—in front of _Peeta_ of all people—and buried her face into her hands. "So you can be happy now. You can say that you told me so and rub it in my face every single day, because this is _exactly _how you told me a relationship with him would end!"

She exhaled loudly, waiting for Peeta to say something—_anything_—but his words never came. When she finally looked up to meet his gaze, he was silently watching her, his expression sympathetic. Frowning, he looked forward, tapping his fingertips on the steering wheel thoughtfully.

"I was jealous of Cato the moment I met him," he suddenly admitted, causing Katniss to stare at him with confusion. "I hated him. I mean _hated _him. I was almost happy when I found out what a jerk he is, because then I had a reason to keep you from seeing him." Peeta shook his head. "But then I realized the potential of what you had going with him ending badly. I knew he was going to hurt you, and I could never be happy about that."

Katniss frowned, absorbing his words. "You were jealous of Cato," said out loud, perhaps to herself. She looked up to meet his eyes again. "But why would you be jealous of him?" she asked him, her voice cracking. What could Cato possibly have that Peeta didn't?

"Because," Peeta began, his eyes closed, as if it was physically paining him to admit it. "Because I've wanted to be with you since the day I met you. I had to watch you two together, watch him take away the only thing I've ever really wanted. I love you...and...and I never even had the nerve to admit it. Then he came in and won your heart before I could even get the courage to do it first."

Katniss mouth went agape at his confession: Peeta loved her.

Peeta _loved _her.

When she looked across the cab, Peeta was watching her nervously, his cheeks visibly flush under the truck's dome light. He grimaced at the unsettling silence between them. There was no taking back the truth now, no matter how hard he tried. If their fight hadn't forever ended their friendship, undoubtedly his sudden confession of his feelings for her would.

"Just..." he began, flicking off the dome light and then reaching to turn the key in the ignition. "Just forget I said anything."

But suddenly her small hand was clamping down on his right wrist, stopping him. When he turned to face her, Katniss' gray eyes were shining.

"And if I told you that I've felt the same way all along?" she asked him in an almost whisper. "Then what would you do?"

Peeta's jaw fell open at her words. Certainly she wasn't admitting what he thought she was—what he _hoped_ she was—was she? For a second he thought that he must be imagining her words. Maybe he was hallucinating from the heat. But the expectant expression that she currently wore told him that, no, he had heard her right: _She felt the same way._

It only took him a minute as he took in the sight of her—her eyes wide with fright at her own confession, hair clinging to her sweaty neck and forehead, and full lips pursed in question—before he crossed the worn bench seat of his old pickup and, cupping the back of her head with his hand, leaned in to kiss her.

The fervor of his kiss was met with a sigh as her small fists instinctively came up to grip the sweat-soaked fabric of the front of Peeta's v-neck t-shirt.

He kissed her lips.

He kissed the place between her eyebrows.

He kissed her eyelids, the tip of her nose, and the angle of her jaw.

"I love you," she told him with each kiss he pressed against her skin. "I love you. I love you."

He couldn't get enough of hearing those words on her lips; he couldn't get nearly as close to her as he wanted to be.

He laid her back against the seat of his truck, and even in the stifling late summer heat, nothing felt more right than the pressure of his body on top of hers. Their sweat mingled as her hands tangled into Peeta's unruly hair as he peppered kisses from her earlobe, across her neck, and on down to her collarbone as he moved aside the strap of her tank top.

His body parted from hers only long enough for her to tug off his shirt, dropping it to the floorboard in the process.

Her fingers traced the defined lines of his chest as her eyes roamed over him. Peeta had always been strong—so strong—but now she realized also how beautiful he was. From his bright blue eyes, to the unmanageable golden curls that never stayed in place, to his heartwarming smile—every part of him made her stomach flutter. How had she ever taken looking at him for granted before?

Katniss eased her torso up from where the cheap vinyl seats stuck to her sweaty back, pulling her own top up over her head as Peeta watched her carefully. Then she placed a kiss on his chest, just below his clavicle, and his body stiffened, his pulse thumping against her lips. His eyes fell over her chest and to the lacy bra that still covered her breasts. He was apprehensive—uncertain if he should touch her. She could feel his hands trembling on her hips when she finally took the liberty of reaching back to unclasp her bra, letting it fall to the floorboard of the truck with a soft thump.

"Katniss," Peeta's voice caught in his throat, his eyes gliding over her bare breasts before meeting hers.

She took his hand in her own, guiding it from when it still rested on her hip, up across her unyielding stomach, and over her ribcage to cup her small breast in his hand. He didn't move at first, waiting before carefully bringing up his thumb to graze over her hardened nipple and causing her to arch into him.

A soft moan filled the cab of the truck.

Peeta's blue eyes stared at her piercingly.

"I-I don't want to rush this," he said softly, cautiously, though his hand didn't stray from where it rested.

But Katniss only smiled, pulling him towards her by his bare shoulders until his forehead rested against her own.

"Peeta, I think it's been long enough."

She didn't have to think twice about it: It had always been Peeta.

To make her point, she took his hand and rested it against the button of her shorts.

Peeta blinked at her, finding it hard to believe that, after all this time, she actually wanted him the same way he had always wanted her. He leaned in, touching his lips against hers and muttering "I love you" against them before kissing her. His finger flipped open the snap of her shorts before slowly dragging down the zipper.

Katniss grasped his face in her hands, pulling him closer into the kiss. Anticipation began to build in her lower abdomen as Peeta's fingers danced teasingly along the waistband of her panties.

"I'm going to take these off now," Peeta told her shyly, signaling towards her denim shorts and causing her to emit a nervous laugh. She knew that he'd done this before, but this time was different for both of them. This meant more to her than the thousands of kisses she'd shared with Cato over the past few months, and she wondered why they had allowed themselves to take so long to get here.

She raised her hips up to help Peeta shimmy her shorts down her legs and off the tips of her toes.

Feeling bolder now, Peeta leaned in and cupped her breast in his hand before pulling the pointed tip between his lips. He gazed up at her as his tongue circled her nipple, causing her to gasp slightly at the sensation.

Katniss closed her eyes, leaning back and relishing in the feeling. And when his other hand came down to stroke her softly through the thin fabric of her panties, she let out a soft moan as her back arched away from the bench seat. She grew wet against his fingers as he continued to stroke her through thin barrier that separated them.

Peeta sat back just far enough to watch her breasts rise and fall as her hips began to buck against his hand. Her fingers wrapped tightly around his wrist, fearing that he would pull away too soon. But then he lifted her hand away from his, causing her to frown at him in question until his fingers hooked into the sides of her panties. He kissed her slowly down the center of her chest, the valley between her breasts, along her tummy, further and further until his lips hovered over the scalloped edge of her simple white undergarment.

He lifted the edge of the fabric slowly, removing it as his mouth closed over her mound at the same time.

Katniss bit down hard on her bottom lip to stifle another loud moan. With a whimper, her knees fell apart, her leg bumping into the dashboard as Peeta discarded her panties somewhere within the truck before positioning his head at the apex of her thighs. He dragged his tongue across the length of her slit agonizingly slow as her hands grasped frantically at locks of his hair.

"Peeta..." her voice whispered his name needfully, desperate for relief from the tension that had begun to build inside of her.

She began to pant uncontrollably as he continued his ministrations, and Peeta felt himself growing uncomfortably hard against the rough fabric of his jeans. Her vocalizations were driving him insane. With that realization, he quickly circled her clit with his tongue, causing her to writhe beneath him as her hands jerked at the curls of his hair she had clenched between her fists.

She was teetering on the edge, the relief that she needed so badly just out of her grasp.

"Please. Peeta, please," she begged him, and he slowly pushed his fingers inside of her as he continued to taste her.

Katniss threw her head back against the corner of the cab where the passenger-side door met the bench seat, shaking as she climaxed and calling out his name. But soon she was coming down off of her high, suddenly feeling too sensitive to his touch. She gently pushed him away by his shoulders as she attempted to regain the composure she'd been unable to hold onto.

Peeta sat up, grinning slyly as he wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist. Katniss was still breathing hard, the slight red tint that flushed her cheeks and chest slowly beginning to fade.

She stared across the truck at him, slightly embarrassed.

"I'm sorry-" she shifted awkwardly on her side of the truck. "You didn't-" she paused, frustrated. "I was selfish; it should have been good for you, too."

"You don't think that did anything for me?" he asked with a smirk, nodding towards his tented jeans and then moving over to her to press a kiss onto her lips. "I don't think you understand the effect you can have on me."

He pressed his body flush against hers again, kissing her, not wanting this night to end. He loved the feel of her skin against his—her bare legs wrapped around his waist, her small but subtle breasts pressing against his chest, the smooth skin of the small of her back against the palms of his hands. He hadn't even registered that she was undoing the button of his jeans until his zipper was already being tugged down.

And then, all at once, her small hand was in his shorts, pulling free his hard cock. His body jerked slightly as she ran her fingers down the length of him. His hand gripped at the back of the bench seat, threatening to pull apart the upholstery where he had duck-taped in the aging foam as his hips bucked towards her.

Closing his eyes, he groaned.

Her hands were warm, soft, and if he opened his eyes to watch her sitting there in his truck, not wearing a stitch of clothing as her hands glided down his cock, he was going to finish before they'd even gotten started.

His hand grabbed hers quickly, startling her.

"Did I-" Katniss began, looking bewildered. She wasn't quite as experiencedas she'd like to be about all of this, but the thought of doing something wrong—maybe even _hurting _him—was mortifying.

"No, no," Peeta assured her, his breathing ragged. "It felt wonderful, _too_ wonderful. I wasn't sure I'd be able to hold on any longer."

He edged back across the seat—it was more cramped in here than he'd ever imagined it could be—and shucked off his jeans and undershorts in unison before kicking them off of his ankles.

Peeta had to admit that the circumstances under which this all was happening was awkward. Only a little over an hour ago, he was picking Katniss up from her boyfriend's house after she had just ended a three-month long relationship. And now, well...

He crawled back between her legs, hovering over her body as he leaned down to kiss her.

"I don't want you to regret this."

It hurt to think it, much less say it. Katniss meant too much to Peeta for him to end up being her rebound guy. He knew he wouldn't be able to handle it if this didn't work out and, instead, ended up destroying their friendship. He needed Katniss in his life, even if it wasn't in the way he wanted it.

Katniss held his face firmly in her hands, forcing his eyes to focus on hers.

"How could I ever regret this?" she asked him, staring at him with certainty. "It's the only thing I'm positive I _do _want," she assured him before pulling him down into another kiss. "This means every bit as much to me as it does to you, Peeta," she promised.

He shook his head in disbelief of how lucky he was to be with her again. He had spent so long worrying they'd never regain the friendship they once had, and now here she was, admitting that she loved him too_._

"God, I love you so much," he said to her, cracking a nervous smile.

He reached down to fumble with his discarded jeans for a moment before pulling his billfold from the back pocket. He reached for the metallic packet inside, sitting back on his knees to roll the condom down his length with unsteady hands.

Peeta positioned himself at her entrance, looking for even a hint of apprehension in her expression before he eased his tip inside her. Katniss emitted a small whimper as he did so, causing his eyes to quickly dart to hers. He paused, worried he'd hurt her and expecting her to ask him to pull out. Instead, she nodded vigorously to assure him that she was fine, and only then did he allow himself to ease into her the rest of the way.

His eyes closed at the feeling of her so tight around him, his forehead dropping against her chest. He waited for her body to adjust to him before beginning to move slowly inside of her. Once the burning pain Katniss felt where their bodies connected had started to dwindle, she began to slowly rock her hips into him in an effort to match his movements. Peeta groaned, his entire body shaking with the intensity of their bodies moving together.

His arms trembled as he braced his body against the truck seat at either side of her head, and when he couldn't contain himself any longer, he began to thrust into her a little more hastily. He grunted loudly as Katniss' hands grasped his shoulders, squeezing them tightly as he began to pick up his pace.

When he was certain he wasn't hurting her, Peeta lost all his reserve, his pelvis grinding between her thighs with abandon. He wanted to hold on to the feeling—wanted to make her come with him—but he knew that he wouldn't last long. Not with Katniss, not when it was their first time together.

The truck tilted slightly with each thrust, creaking softly with his frantic movements.

Peeta mumbled something indecipherable when he finally felt his release.

He came hard inside the condom, exhaling a deep breath as he collapsed atop her, bracing himself against the seat with his folded arms that wrapped protectively around her torso. His face nuzzled into the crook of her neck, his breathing still labored as he felt Katniss wrap her arms around his shoulders, pulling him tightly against her.

After a few moments, she pulled away from Peeta's embrace just far enough to look into his eyes, and he smiled tiredly down at her. Beads of sweat rolled down his back, his curls stuck heavily against the his damp forehead, and below him, Katniss' body was also slick with sweat. Their skin stuck together where his weight pressed against her, their bodies still joined as one. The only relief from the insufferable humidity was the slight breeze that occasionally blew through the open window. Outside, the sun had begun to rise.

Peeta moved to lie on his side next to her, pulling her to him so that her body fit into the curve of his, crushing them together within the confined space. He wrapped his arms securely around Katniss' small frame so that she wouldn't tumble off the side of the bench, and their legs bunched up and tangled together at the end of the seat. He pulled his hands through her sweat-dampened hair, which had somehow worked loose of its braid in the midst of their passionate encounter and was now a mess of tangled waves.

Peeta sighed deeply as Katniss laughed against his chest.

"What?" he asked her, looking down at where she'd nestled against his torso with a smile.

She motioned to the yellowed stuffing, which was now crumbling through a crack in the well-worn upholstery.

"I don't think this old truck can handle us."


End file.
